Kim Yo Jong says strike assets may be deployed near border — RMF24

In North Korea, Kim Yo Jong, deputy director of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, said that Pyongyang is considering deploying additional tactical strike assets near the border with South Korea. Propaganda broadcasts via loudspeakers along the Demilitarized Zone may also be resumed, RMF24 reports.

Accusations against Seoul

In a statement distributed by North Korean agency KCNA, the sister of DPRK leader Kim Jong Un described the situation at the border as highly unstable. She claimed that South Korean military personnel allegedly regularly fire warning shots toward DPRK servicemen who are building border fortifications.

According to Kim Yo Jong, from August to mid-October, South Korean forces fired 201 warning shots and broadcast messages through border loudspeakers more than 2,800 times. She called these actions hostile provocations that, she said, had crossed a red line.

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The mine incident

The DPRK representative also mentioned an incident on September 21, when three South Korean servicemen were injured as a result of mine explosions in the Demilitarized Zone. South Korea and the UN Command concluded that the explosive devices had been planted by North Korea. Pyongyang, for its part, accused Seoul of falsifying the investigation's findings.

Kim Yo Jong did not specify which military assets could additionally be deployed near the border. She said that the DPRK would defend its sovereignty. North and South Korea formally remain at war, as the 1950–1953 conflict ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty. Since the beginning of 2024, Pyongyang has intensified mine-laying in the Demilitarized Zone, and Kim Jong Un has called South Korea the DPRK's principal enemy.